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Middle Grade Non-Fiction
Double Crossed: The WWII Spies Who Saved D-Day

Double Crossed: The WWII Spies Who Saved D-Day

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Author(s)

Rebecca E.F. Barone

Publisher

Henry Holt & Co. (BYR)

Genre(s)

Age Range

10+

Release Date

April 28, 2026

ISBN

978-1250345561

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A thrilling WWII middle-grade narrative nonfiction account of Operation Bodyguard, in which the Allied forces used spies and double agents to deceive the Nazis about their true plans for D-Day.

"Throws you right into the action―real spies playing for the highest possible stakes!" ―award-winning author Steve Sheinkin

In the fall of 1943, German troops controlled nearly all of continental Europe. The one chance the Allies had of punching through the German front meant keeping the enemy distracted and in the dark. They had to take the Germans by surprise on “D-Day.”

The mission: trick the Germans into believing the Allies would strike anywhere but their true target, the beaches of Normandy. Featuring historical photos and breathtaking true accounts, Double Crossed tells the exhilarating story of Operation Bodyguard, the mind-boggling effort to lay a false trail for the Germans using fake armies, decoy landings, and the covert work of double agents and spies who risked their lives. With millions of lives hanging in the balance, victory―or defeat―in World War II depended on the Nazis being caught unaware.

Editor review

1 review

Fascinating Look at WWII Espionage

May 05, 2026 (Updated: June 04, 2026)

Overall rating

5.0

Writing Style

5.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

Learning Value

5.0

Avid readers of World War II narrative nonfiction will love this book! It's a cross between Seiple's Nazi Saboteurs: Hitler's Secret Attack on America and Janeczko's Secret Soldiers: How the U.S. Twenty-Third Special Troops Fooled the Nazis (both published in 2019), but centers on Operation Bodyguard and several of the double agents that were instrumental in making it a success. Starting with a list of the many historical figures involved, Barone draws us in to the world of espionage and intrigue that existed during this time period. The thing that baffled me was how some of these agents were able to be hired by the government with absolutely no skills or background at all in intelligence work!

Two of these people, Johnny Jebsen and Duško Popov, were wealthy and looking for adventure. Juan Pujol Garcia was a poultry farmer who had a lot of trouble being accepted, and only got taken on when his wife approached the US with his "credentials". Perhaps my favorite is Lily Sergueiew, who was Russian, and was recruited by the Abwehr. She wanted to be sent to Britain so that she could be a double agent, but really wanted to take her small dog, Babs, with her. She was promised that she could, but this didn't work out, and she harbored a lot of ill will against the British when she had to leave the dog behind.

I'm not sure how it occurs to someone that it's a good idea to be a "XX agent" (double cross; this tripped me up when I read it!). The stakes are high, and the amount of lying one would have to keep straight would be enormous. Since the British had managed to crack the codes developed by the German Enigma machine, but the Germans didn't know this, there was a lot of work involving codes.

Operation Bodyguard was essentially a plan to distract the Germans from fortifying the area around Normandy ahead of the planned Allied D Day operation. The planning surrounding this was enormous. Not only were there the messages and misleading information passed by the double agents, but a vast infrastructure of fake harbors and equipment. I'd read about the soldiers parachuting into areas with gramophones and records of gunfire and talking, but even with the pictures in the book and Barone's excellent descriptions, it's hard to imagine how vast the operation was.

Good Points

Of course, D Day was as successful as something that contributed to the death of so many men could be. The Nazis were turned back, and the war changed. What was interesting was how the double agents were involved, and what happened to them afterwards. Again, I was fascinated with Sergueiew. There are excerpts from her journal (which things like a horrible thing for a double agent to keep!), and she was so bitter and disenchanted with the whole experience, but kept going more or less out of spite, and because she enjoyed having the power to take down the whole operation.

While WWII is not my favorite thing to read about, (and I struggled mightily to keep all of the moving pieces of this narrative straight!) there are always students who want more information. Double Crossed is a great length, has plenty of pictures and facsimiles of things like the initial plan for Project Bodyguard, and ends with resources for additional reading. The teachers at my school are requiring that students read more narrative nonfiction, so this is a perfect book to purchase for a middle school or high school collection, along with Barone's other titles like Race to the Bottom of the Earth: Surviving Antarctica, Unbreakable: The Spies Who Cracked the Nazis' Secret Code, and Mountain of Fire: The Eruption and Survivors of Mount St. Helens. Of course, what I am really looking forward to is her Mind Not the Timid, a fictional book about the women's suffrage movement in 1917, set to potentially come out in 2027!